Open Obedience Class or The Good and The Bad.

I had an Open Obedience class start last night (open as in Open class with retrieves, etc). The only dog I have that's even close to ready for Open is Quinn, so I decided to take him, have him demo. the exercises and then send him home with my sister.

When we arrived he barked at a couple of dogs he saw in the parking lot, but I moved out to the street and got him calmed down. When we had a little space, I took him into the building and right into a ring. He did great--no barking. We started working in the big ring practicing Open stuff. Another trainer brought her very calm GSD in the ring to practice with us. Quinn looked at other dog and then absolutely ignored him. At one point, we both set up the dogs (about 25' away from each other) and walked to the other side of the ring. I called Quinn first, then she called her dog. Quinn did nothing, he didn't even look at her or her dog!

That was the good.

I then had the students for the class line up outside the ring and watch us do a routine. Quinn did great, until we got to the retrieve on the flat. There was a lady with a Malinois standing just outside the ring gate right opposite us. I threw the dumbbell short and Quinn hesitated to get it. I knew why, the Mal was intense and he wasn't comfortable. I suggested we go to the other end of the ring and try it again. I should have asked the woman to move her dog.

When we got to the other side Quinn didn't want to go to heel, (again, I should have listened to him). He went behind me and ran up to the ring gate barking and growling. I told him to knock it off and called him back. He did (yay!) and I did get him to retrieve on the flat, he wasn't really focused on the retrieve over the jump, but had gotten back into the swing of things as we did the Broad jump exercise.

When my sister took him out of the building he barked quite a bit, but I just told her to leave and not mess around. I probably pushed him too far, too fast. but overall I'm really proud of his behavior. I obviously need to really focus on what he's telling me, he knew the situations he couldn't handle and he let me know. Now I just need to not push him.

Training with the Trainer

Met with the trainer today at a local park. She brought her older male Aussie and her younger male GSD. Quinn does not like GSD's for whatever reason, I was a little nervous.

We started with her getting out her Aussie and setting him up about 12' from the sidewalk. Quinn and I just started walking toward them. As we got closer, when he noticed her dog, I paused and when he chose to disengage, I marked the behavior and ran away (okay, by the end I was walking away). Quinn figured out that he could ignore the dog completely, he was on a loose leash walking back and forth in font of and to the side of her boy. She then had me go into the parking lot and she walked her Aussie by Quinn. He got a little upset, but wasn't overloaded. At one point we were walking behind them and Quinn acted as if he wanted to catch up to them.

She then brought out her GSD. I wasn't sure how Quinn would react. We started out the same way and Quinnie did very well. We had one outburst, but he settled down and it was much quicker for him to learn to ignore the dog. I walked around them and moved a little closer. Then she and I walked the dogs side by side (about 6-10' apart) down the soccer field and back. Quinn had no outbursts he reacted very well. I'm so proud of him!

Practicing Open

Went to the club building on Friday, the trainer didn't show, so Quinn and I practiced an open routine. He's doing very well, we need some more practice on the drop on recall. His broad jump was very good considering we haven't done it in about 2 months. His retrieves are fantastic as usual.

I worked a bit on the Graduate Novice exercise the dumbbell recall. The dog takes the dumbbell, you tell them to stay, walk across the ring and call him. Quinn really wanted to heel with the db in his mouth. That's really a favorite exercise.

We practiced a bit on directed jumping: sending him out to a target and jumping the high and bar jump on command. We didn't make much progress on that exercise.

Afterwards, I took him to PetsMart and we practiced B.A.T. with the store employees and any customers in the store (no dogs to use as decoys).

At one point a customer asked if I'd put a coat on Quinn to see if it would fit him. I said yes and put Quinn in a stand stay, stepped on the leash and put the coat on him. It barely fit and he was miserable, "Bad, Mommy!"

Really he didn't care that someone was looking at him, he didn't care about the stand-stay. He hated having to wear a coat!

Hope to meet up with the trainer next week.

Poor Quinn

I've been practicing Scent Discrimination with him. I moved the set up into the living room (from the dining room) to give him a new location to try it. He seems to be getting the idea, I can't do many repetitions, if I try to do it more than two or three times or he starts to just grab articles. I wonder if he gets bored or he's being lazy. Hmm, I'll have to think on that.

I took him to the club on Thursday evening. When I got there, we were alone. We went inside and we practiced some heeling and retrieves, drops, etc. A person was there with out their dog. He showed interest, but didn't bark at her. While we were in the smaller ring, located partially behind the bathroom, someone brought their dog in. Her dog was very barky. Quinn barked once or twice at her dog, I did correct him and then moved further away from the ring gate. She moved past us into another ring. Quinn then began barking at me, it wasn't the growly, aggressive bark at the other dog. He was looking right at me and barking. I covered his eyes, which is what I'd do for any other dog (you can see or bark). He did stop barking after a bit, then we went out to the car.

Unfortunately he and Jojo got into an argument, they were running outside and crashed into each other, that sparked actual bites. Jojo has a puncture wound on the top of his muzzle. Quinn ended up with four stitches in his ear! I've been keeping him quiet, I'll be meeting with my trainer on Friday.

Thursday's session

I met my trainer at the local obedience club building.

She set her 13 year old female up in a different ring than last time. She pointed out I needed to watch Quinn for calming signals (sniffing/lip-licking, etc), not just turning away from her dog. I brought Quinn in and he barked once or twice, but settled down. I was just having some timing issues with him and he got to practice a little barking/lunging.

I think her female has decided that she needs to fix Quinn's little red wagon once and for all. She didn't approach us at all, but she did stand up a couple of times.
We only got a little practice in before someone came to us the Agility equipment. I knew Quinn wouldn't have been able to handle that, so I took him back to the car. We'll try again next week.

Back to Scent Discrimination or Why taking a break from training an exercise can help the dog.

I've taken a small break from B.A.T. training with Quinn, I'll meet with my trainer on Thursday.

Last spring, I began working with Quinn on Janice Demello's Around the clock method of teaching Scent discrimination. He'd been doing pretty good, but we hadn't gotten away from using cheese. I'd decreased the amount, but was having a little trouble fading it completely.
About that time, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness and I stopped working on that exercise.

Last night, I decided to see where Quinn was with S. D. I put down a clean article and a scented article and told him to "find mine". He ran out, sniffed them both and brought back the correct one. Yay!

Today, I decided to haul out the whole set up. The first time I put out a clean article and a metal one with scent and a small smear of cheese. He brought me the correct one. I didn't use cheese on the next set up (two clean articles and the scented one). He did great. The third time, he brought me a clean leather article. I said "oops" and took it, but no treat.

I put out another clean article and a minuscule bit of cheese on the scented article. He did great. Back to no cheese, but the time we had 9 articles out, he was bringing me the scented article with no cheese on it. I then switched to the leather article, I did use a bit of cheese on it, I wanted him to get it right.

Then I switched out the leather article I've been using all along, for the clean one he had retrieved before. I scented it, but didn't add any cheese (this article has never had cheese on it). I put them out and rearranged them a bit. He sniffed all the articles and brought the correct one!

I've seen it before, I really think giving the dog a break to process new information really helps him to understand the exercise. Probably a year was a bit long of a break, but I do think it helped Quinn figure it out! I am so happy with my boy.

Session 2+

Monday I had another training session with my new coach. She brought a newer method to work on Quinn's issues. B.A.T. --Behavioral Adjustment Training, written about by Grisha Stewart a trainer out of Seattle.

My trainer brought her 13 year old Aussie bitch to use as a 'decoy' dog. Basically, Quinn and I would move closer to her (while she was in a down-stay), when he noticed her, I stopped. As soon as he looked away, I marked the behavior and ran back to the 'starting point'. We did it several times and she moved her Aussie to a couple of new locations, overall I really like how it's progressing.

I've always felt that using food with Quinn added a bit of guarding behavior. I don't know if that's just my fear or if it's reality, but I like this method because you don't start off using food. It makes him work to control himself to earn the ability to move away from the decoy, instead of working for food where he might easily eat the food then explode on the decoy anyway.

Tuesday, I had a friend bring her Corgi and she did a sit-stay and a down-stay with her dog while Quinn and I worked. We've trained in the same ring before, so Quinn's familiar with her dog. He had no reactivity at all.

Tonight, I took him back to the training building and another trainer was there with her Golden. I asked if she'd do a Down-Stay with him, while I worked with Quinn. He did pretty well. He did react once (I moved too close, too fast). I didn't want to inconvenience the other trainer too much, so after several minutes, I put Quinn back into the car. I was pleased that he didn't seem stressed when I took him back to the car.

Petco again!

Yesterday afternoon we once again I tried Petco. I don't know if it's because Quinn has bad associations with the place, but he was really wound up. It wasn't hugely busy, there were maybe two dogs in the whole store. He started barking as soon as we pulled into the lot. He saw a GSD being walked out of the store and lost it.
I just spent time with him in the crate (door open) and used the clicker, clicking for calm behavior and just letting hang out in his crate.I pulled him out of the crate and he was happy calm while he pottied, but as soon as we got into the store he barked at a store clerk, at Alicia with Sage (her puppy, who's currently living at my house while Alicia's pet/house-sitting).
I did get him to calm down a little, but he was on alert the whole time we were in the store. There were a couple of kids with a small white dog running around. He was focused on the boy when he saw him, but only barked at the little girl with the dog. He's never been comfortable around children, so I'm okay with his behavior at this point.
The worst reaction he had was as we left the store. A woman with a large black mix of some sort was getting out of her car as we approached my car. Quinn began barking, I corrected him, but it didn't help he continued to bark. Her dog was on a flat buckle collar and started to drag her over to Quinn. I just grabbed Quinn by the scruff and turned him away, he didn't stop barking, but the woman was able to get the other dog back under control and they went into the store. As soon as the dog was out of sight, Quinn calmed down. At that point I just crated him.Overall better than the last time we went to Petco, not as good as he's done at Petsmart or the club.

Quinn at the club

I took Quinn to the Greater Lincoln Obedience Club building. There was an Agility Fundamentals class and a Good Dog Level 1 class so there were plenty of dogs present.
He was barking when we pulled into the parking lot, but I waited him out and made him stay in the crate (door open) until he calmed down.
We then walked around a bit and let him potty if needed. When another trainer drove in we moved to the street. She had her very calm Border Collie with her and Quinn barked maybe once, but quickly calmed down.
We went into the building and he initially barked a couple of times, I corrected him and started rewarding him for being calm. I moved in to the office door several times and moved so he could see the other dogs in the building and again rewarded for calm behavior and then moved back into the office.
At one point another trainer brought her dogs towards the office. She came up on us quickly and Quinn began getting very upset. I asked her to wait for a minute in the doorway, then I calmed him down and moved him to the back of the office. He did very well, he didn't bark at them as they came close and left the building. He knows her dog, but on-leash in the building is very different from off leash in my backyard.
Overall I think he had a good session. I'm working up to being in the ring next to a beginning class or agility class. I don't think he'll ever be able to handle a Flyball class.

Day 2, Petco

My trainer gave me homework. It was to go to PetsMart and spend 10 minutes just walking around the store. No shopping, focus only on Quinn and interrupt or correct his bad behavior and reward the good. She also suggested I find a smaller class at the obedience club and get him either into the class or take him into the building--I'll work on that later!
Today I decided to take him to Petco, it's the same isn't it?
Apparently not. PetsMart on Friday is very very different from Petco on a Saturday. Quinn was over the top. When we first started in, he was fine. We got just inside the doors and he spotted the rescue booth. It wasn't the two Italian Greyhounds there to be adopted that make him bark, but the little Schipperke that was dancing around while the owners talked to the rescue people.
At that point, correcting him did not work. I just turned and got out of the entry-way. I should have turned around and left.
I worked on rewarding him and trying to stay as far away from the Schipperke and his people as possible. We were there about 5 minutes and had worked our way back to the grooming area. He barked a bit over the dog barking in the grooming room, but soon calmed down. We moved away to the Aquatics dept. He was nervous at first, but calmed quickly. We did a couple of pivots and were admired by a Dad and his daughter buying fish. As we moved back toward the door, I knew we'd have to pass the rescue booth. I moved up to the end of an aisle near the booth and we worked on not growling or barking at the Iggies (that he now decided needed to be barked at). When he calmed down I moved away and back up the next aisle, closer to the door and the booth.
We were almost even with the booth when the Schipperke and his people came down the main aisle, back to show off his new coat to the rescue people. Quinn once again went over the top. We moved back by the ferrets because I couldn't get him to calm down at all. Once the Schipperke was out of sight, he calmed down pretty quickly (he didn't care about the ferrets at all).
As soon as the Shipperke and his people left, we got the heck out of there. I now know, do not go to the store on a Saturday morning!

Quinn's Re-Training

The last time I posted (Wow! Two years ago.) I mentioned Quinn was a little shy in PetsMart and had some issues with over-reacting around unfamiliar dogs. Though we've been in competitions and he earned his BN (Beginning Novice) title, we now have to go back and address his issues.
My goal is to earn his RE title and move on to more obedience (Novice, Open and Utility). So to actually succeed, he needs to learn to calm down around strange dogs.

The first and last time I tried to compete in Rally Excellent, he really went nuts over the Dachshund that was supposed to be working in the ring while he did his honoring. Luckily, we found this out before going into the ring. I pulled Quinn, not only did I not want him to practice the behavior, but I didn't want to mess up the other dogs chances.
The one thing I've learned is 'out of control' dogs push Quinn's buttons. The other thing I've learned is that many of the dogs in Rally are out of control. They don't really know how to heel and if their owners couldn't use fake lures, the dog would be gone. (Yes, I expect some will take exception to this, but I've seen a lot of dogs that shouldn't have qualified, get their titles-- Missy is one of them!)
So, I've decided to work with a trainer. Intellectually I know what to do. I've helped many other people with the same issues. But knowing and doing are two different things when it's my dog that's acting like a fool.
We met yesterday at PetsMart, he wasn't interested in meeting her at all (that's fine). So she and I talked a while, I told her his history and she watched us walk through PetsMart. I don't know if it was lucky or not, it was very quiet, not many dogs or people. After a while she told me what I was doing right and what I needed to work on. Yay!
One of the things I had thought I was doing wrong was corrected him when he went over the top and began barking. She told me to keep doing it. I had been moving back while correcting him, she told me that I shouldn't do that. Keep him in place until he calms down and make moving away a reward for calm behavior. Wow! Such a small thing, but it really makes sense.
She brought her dog in and we worked on getting him to just allow them to move around us. He did really well and as we left the store we walked out together. Quinn and her dog were about 4-6 foot apart, but Quinn was ignoring her dog!
I do have to admit, I put Quinn away, got into the car and cried.